Dine Out @ Hart House

Booked the Hart House for DOV (Dine Out Vancouver) with a few friends as a "night" out without the kiddies. Very strange feeling since we had not eaten a nice dinner without kids as a group for quite some time. It was like rewinding 5 years! I haven't been to the Hart House in ages, but it hasn't changed much since that time. The Hart House is near Deer Lake and it's actually a house converted to a restaurant. The dining rooms are small and very cozy. It's got that old heritage feel to it.

Upon arrival, we were greeted warmly by the hostess and quickly led to our table. We had a nice round table for six, excellent for carrying conversations with everyone at the table. Our server was very friendly and helpful. She made sure we were well-informed as to what was on the menu and was readily available if we needed anything. For the Dine Out, there were 2 choices of appetizer, a Smoked Tuna Carpaccio or Roasted Butternut Squash Soup. The 2 choices of entree were Braised Short Ribs or Seared Scallops. Dessert was either a Cinnamon Cake Donut or Banana Upside Down Cake. Since we had 6 people, we covered all the dishes with our orders.

I started with the carpaccio and it was pretty good. The tuna was fresh, with a hint of smoke flavour and laced with a truffle dressing. I enjoyed the carpaccio. I thought the flavours worked well with each other, a hint of smoke, a hint of earthiness with the truffle dressing and the pickled beets added a bit of acidity. According to the ones who had the soup, it was very good, with hints of nutmeg and cinnamon. The cinnamon in the soup came in the form of mini marshmallows that were melting on the top. For the entree, I decided on the scallops which rested on a bed of escarole, truffle sunchoke puree, braised shallots and red wine jus. Although the dish wasn't bad, I did have some issues with it. First, and most importantly, the scallops were not seared enough for my liking. I personally like scallops that are a bit more caramelized which adds both flavour and texture. In addition, the escarole was not very good, it reminded me of a limp caesar salad. The red wine jus did not seem to go well with this dish at all, it didn't add any flavour or acidity, thus; it probably should not have been on the plate.

I tried the short ribs and it was very tender and had good balance in taste. One of my friends commented that it was a bit boring and the dish need some zing, or tartness. In hindsight, I agree, the short rib would have been fantastic if it had something like a cider vinegar in the braising liquid. For dessert, I chose the banana cake and I liked it. It was not too sweet and the candied walnuts added a crunch as a contrast to the soft bananas and cake. However, the cake itself was a bit cold and that detracted from the dish. The cinnamon donut... believe it or not was just one regular-sized donut with ice cream on top. Although it tasted fine, it was hardly anything we would actually associate with fine dining.

So the food had it's highs and it's lows, and not one dish was considered impressive (maybe with the exception of the tuna carpaccio). It wasn't horrible by any stretch of the imagination and for the Dine Out price, it was reasonable. Yet, it lags behind other restaurants in the same price range. The expediting of the dishes was extremely slow, it took us 3 hours to finish our meal. The gap between the entree and dessert was a 30-minute wait. However, the service was very good and we were never left with an empty glass or empty bread basket. I know some people do not consider Dine Out as a good gauge of a restaurant; but I would like to disagree. I believe Dine Out is a perfect way to judge a restaurant. The reason is that Dine Out is usually busy and you would like to see how a restaurant performs when it's near or at capacity. Also, when a restaurant needs to work within a limit of a budget to create a 3-course meal for a reasonable price, you can see the skill of the executive chef and their staff. It is so much easier to make a stunning meal if you had an unlimited budget of the most priciest ingredients. I would say that the Hart House was a fairly decent meal; yet, it could've been a lot better too.


The Good:
- Comfortable and quaint dining room
- Good and unpretentious service
- Free and accessible parking

The Bad:
- Food was not bad, but it was hit and miss
- Expediting of food was painfully slow
- I know it's Dine Out, but a doughnut for dessert?

Hart House Restaurant
6664 Deer Lake Avenue
Burnaby, B.C.
604 298-4278
www.harthouserestaurant.com